Day 4

Today started off quite grey which we were told is the norm for Beijing because of the pollution. Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven park and our spirits were soon lifted by the amount of activity going on. All around us were ordinary people, young and old, all enjoying whatever activity took their fancy today. There was lots of dancing, both fast and slow. 

There were groups playing keepy uppy.  This is played with four feathers attached to a weight, not dissimilar to a shuttlecock. It looked so easy especially when they were performing back kicks but when our group had a go we were useless.

We then watched some tai chi and it looked so peaceful and graceful that it made you want to join in. Unfortunately we had a schedule to keep and so had to move on. 

The next groups we saw were singing and this too is considered to be exercise.  Haven't a clue what they were singing but I do know that they sounded wonderful. 

As we walked to the Temple of Heaven we came across dozens of groups of men playing cards and then ladies knitting beautiful garments and then crocheting the most intricate patterns. 

What we didn't see, much to our disappointment, was people taking their birds for a walk. No, not on leads, in cages. They have special small cages so that they can take them out every day in the same way that you might walk a dog.  Oh well it takes all sorts to make this world go around. I think next time we're in Liverpool we might take nana Irene's budgie for a walk!!!

Next came the Temple of Heaven

quickly followed by the Temple for Good Harvests. 

It never ceases to amaze me just how superstitious other cultures are. Everything is done in multiples of nine,  with each flight of steps leading up to the temples having nine steps. I won't bore you with any other examples of nine. 

Soon it was time to leave behind Beijing and it's twenty million people and move on to Xi'an. At the airport we had time to find some lunch before the flight and so went into the equivalent of MacDonalds only this was Chinese fast food. We took a bowl of what looked like meat, green beans and red chillies only to find that the green beans were in fact green chillies. It was, needless to say, very very hot. Silly us. 

We arrived in Xi'an and I don't know why I thought we were coming to a small town but the population here is 9 million. Makes London seem tiny with 8 million.  

Tonight we went out to a recommended restaurant and after being shown to a table and looking at the menu we decided to make a hasty exit. Problem was, we couldn't read Chinese, nobody spoke any English and we didn't want to end up with a dish of chillies again. Instead we took the easy option and made our way back to the hotel.  We ended up having a lovely meal with two other couples from our trip so all's well. 

Update on my complaint about warm chicken sandwiches and lack of champagne. By way of recompense we are going to be given a dinner with wine on our first night in Shanghai. A good result I reckon.